Did a survey a couple of years ago right before I ??retired? for the owner of the construction company I had contracted to for years. ?ÿTurned out there was an issue of a small section of street r/w on it that had never been abandoned. About a year later they called and wanted a plat to get it closed, so I did it and gave it to the company attorney. ?ÿHadn??t heard any more about it, so thought it was all taken care of. Got a letter last week saying there was going to be a public hearing and they wanted a note changed on the plat. ?ÿAdded that and delivered copies to the city planning dept. as they requested. Got an email today saying the plats needed to be picked up and taken to all the utilities for signatures. First time I??ve ever had plat go thru their red tape, wondering if it??s sop for the surveyor to go hunt down all the utilities and get signatures?
I have no experience with this. But somebody has to do it, apparently and if they can get the surveyor to do it and sign off that it is all of them, then the lawyer doesn't have to be responsible.
Are you getting paid reasonably, and do you have insurance in case you miss one of the utilities and it becomes a fiasco?
"sop for the surveyor to go hunt down all the utilities and get signatures?"
I have filed many subdivision plats and have never been requested to do that. Usually the municipality in which the plat is being recorded obtain all necessary signatures.
Usually the owner takes it around and gets all of the signatures in my experience.
In my experience, for private-sector land development projects the platting authority/city government isn't going to chase down signatures for the developer.
They'll route it through their own departments for city planner, engineer, auditor, etc., but only for the folks who work directly for them, and only after we've collected all the other signatures.
In this case, even though there is no "developer" per se, the construction company initiated the process, not the city. So the burden of taking it across the finish line lies with them.
I think that's a line item.
Signature 1. $ 100.00
Signature 2. $ 250.00
Signature 3. $ 100.00
Signature 4. $ 300.00
Minimum fee is 100.00 each.
Just depends on how hard to get, and how much explaining was needed to get it.
Sounds like an odd process/requirement to have utility companies sign a plat Plats seems to have a different meaning depending on your State. We need many signatures on our plats, Utilities aren't one of them.
Our contract/fee described who is doing what. We prefer to handle obtaining the agency signatures because all of our plats are on Mylar and the signatures must be in a nice permanent ink. Owners don't tend to take care of the documents the way we do. Or, they use the wrong pen and smear the mylar and have to start all over again, what a pain!
Sounds like an odd process/requirement to have utility companies sign a plat Plats seems to have a different meaning depending on your State. We need many signatures on our plats, Utilities aren't one of them.
Our contract describes who is doing what. It can literally takes weeks to get the signatures and takes alot of effort. We prefer to handle obtaining the agency signatures because all of our plats are on Mylar and the signatures must be in a nice permanent ink. Owners don't tend to take care of the documents the way we do. Or, they use the wrong pen and smear the mylar and have to start all over again, what a pain!
It's a blanket certificate acknowledging the closure and giving consent. Has to be signed by water, gas, electric, cable, phone, sewer, and city.
Definitely not SOP for the surveyor. The party with the interest in getting the road closed is the party who will get the signatures or pay for someone else to get them.
In most companies that I've worked for, after the plans were signed and sealed it was the clients responsibility to do the leg work. Where I currently work, we have a person on staff who takes care of this stuff.
We send out letters to utilities when a vacation is proposed. They need to respond or they're considered a yes to the vacation. But there is no approval needed from them on any plat or document.
In my experience, for private sector work it is typically the surveyor, but it could be someone else involved in the process (owner, attorney, etc.). The red tape (public notices, private notices, applications, endorsement of acting agent, signature of corporate authority, TAC review, plan commission hearings, sub-committee reviews, city sign off, county sign off, utilities, etc.) can be significant when it comes to platting around here. I think it is important to make sure your contract or scope of work defines such things. Also, your fee must reflect such things.
When I used to do land development related work in the DC suburbs, I always noted in my proposal that processing the documents, obtaining signatures, etc. was the responsibility of the client's land use attorney.
Given the complexity of development entitlement process, their not having one in place was always a red flag.
It can help tremendously if the municipality holds a "signing" party at their office on a certain date at a certain time with ALL those signing being told to be there.
